Memorial Day Adventures

Friday night for Memorial Day weekend, I joined David's mondo-sized camping trip. I'm talking 60 people were there. Not all of them stayed the night though. I thought the weather was going to be terrible, but it ended up being beautiful! And the Jambalaya that David made for everyone turned out really well despite my doubts.

Yep. I'm Paul Bunyan's Lady.

Janie, Carrie, and Wendy chillin'.

David, the Jambalaya King

Our beautiful campground up AF canyon.

Me, Janie, and Chris - fireside goofballs.

On Saturday, Josh took Janie, David, and me 4-byin' in his Toyota FJ-40 rig, that he's named Clifford. We had such a blast! He took us up a very rocky road that ended at a forest lake - or more like a spring runoff collection point. When we got to the "lake" it started to snow and rain - it was that cold of a weekend! The bad weather just delayed itself. But it also made the roads muddier. One mud hole that we skirted earlier in the drive ended up eating us on our way back down the mountain. Clifford was tipped at a precarious angle in the mud hole - if you can tell by the angle of the trees through the windshield. But Josh has a winch so David climbed out the back of the rig and hooked up the winch. Once we were straightened out, Josh drove through the mud hole like it was no big deal. It was crazy awesome! Once we got out of the mountains, the four of us went to lunch at Cafe Rio as the cherry on top. It was super fun!

Clifford!

Josh, me, and David at the forest lake

Me, Janie, Josh, & David

Stuck in the mud hole! We were tipped 45 degrees.

Then Monday morning, I had my next mountain bike race in the Corner Canyon area of Draper. Janie joined me to support Jen, Tim, and I at the race. It was fun to have her and to hear her cheer me on at the beginning! There were seven ladies in my category, so it was kind of a big race! I passed two of the ladies on the two-mile shake-out loop: one was kind of slow, the other struggled at the first rocks and thankfully I was able to get past her. Then I passed another lady who was having trouble with her tire going flat. And then believe this!: I passed another beginner lady on the shake-out loop when we had to do it again at the end of the race. I saw her and noticed that I was closing the distance. I couldn't believe it! So I ended up taking 3rd place out of 7!! This was a long course too: 12.5 miles. Normally my races are only 7 miles. But with doing 34 miles at Mesa Verde and 12.5 at this one . . . I'm nervous all of the other ICUP mountain bike races will feel short now!

Looking strong on my 5-mile climb!